MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Nicco Marchiol’s first profession begin was filled with hiccups, oversights and errors. The West Virginia quarterback certain was completely satisfied about the way it turned out.

“Ecstatic to come out victorious,” Marchiol stated.

The redshirt freshman threw a landing go instead of the injured Garrett Greene, CJ Donaldson added a brief TD run and West Virginia held off Texas Tech 20-13 in its Massive 12 opener on Saturday.

West Virginia was held underneath 300 complete yards of offense for the second straight week. However its protection performed one other stable sport to beat any deficiencies on the opposite facet of the ball.

Texas Tech backup quarterback Behren Morton got here on for the injured Tyler Shough within the first quarter and put collectively a pair of scoring drives. However Morton, who had thrown for 325 yards and two touchdowns towards the Mountaineers a yr in the past in Texas Tech’s 48-10 win, could not carry the Pink Raiders again from a 13-3 deficit this time.

Morton drove the Pink Raiders from their 28 to the West Virginia 11, however he threw 4 straight incompletions, the final one with 11 seconds left.

On a day that noticed former standout defensive finish Bruce Irvin inducted into West Virginia’s Sports activities Corridor of Fame, the Mountaineers (3-1, 1-0 Massive 12) restricted Texas Tech (1-3, 0-1) to 56 complete yards within the first half and 321 total in a gentle drizzle from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Ophelia.

Shough, who had sat out video games towards West Virginia within the two earlier years with accidents, took arduous hits on consecutive performs late within the first quarter and was pushed off the sphere on a cart with an harm to his decrease left leg. On the time, Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire stated he kissed Shough on the brow, instructed Shough he beloved him and requested him to “hang in there, we’ll see what it is.” He stated he did not have an replace on Shough’s harm.

“You feel for a guy that works as hard as he does,” McGuire stated.

The groups traded 79-yard scoring drives early within the fourth quarter. Morton discovered Jerand Bradley with a 6-yard scoring go. Marchiol answered with a 9-yard TD toss to Kole Taylor to place West Virginia forward 20-10.

Morton then threw a 16-yard go to Bradley on third all the way down to arrange Texas Tech on the West Virginia 16. However Morton threw three straight incompletions and the Pink Raiders settled for Gino Garcia’s second subject objective, a 34-yarder with 4:45 left.

Morton completed 13 of 37 for 158 yards.

Marchiol bought the beginning every week after taking part in most of a 17-6 win over Pittsburgh when Greene injured an ankle early within the sport.

Marchiol threw two interceptions — one which went off the arms of extensive receiver Devin Carter. However Texas Tech managed solely three factors off these errors.

“Obviously not a good quarterback performance on my end,” Marchiol stated. “Could have been much better.”

However Marchiol put collectively sufficient sustained drives to make a distinction. Donaldson ran for 34 yards on a 75-yard drive that ended along with his 2-yard run late within the first quarter. Marchiol later ran 19 yards on third all the way down to arrange certainly one of two subject objectives by Michael Hayes.

Marchiol led West Virginia with 72 dashing yards. However he did not see a number of open receivers and was held to 12 of 21 passing for 78 yards.

West Virginia coach Neal Brown was extra complimentary of Marchiol’s play than the participant was.

“For a guy making his first start in really poor weather and wet, I thought he did a pretty good job,” Brown said. “We’ve got to be better around him.”

Brooks ran for 131 of his 149 yards within the second half for Texas Tech.

“Tajh Brooks is the perfect participant that no one talks about on this league,” Brown stated.

THE TAKEAWAY

Texas Tech: Time ran out on the Red Raiders, who outplayed the Mountaineers after halftime but couldn’t put together enough key plays. Texas Tech converted just 2 of 18 times on third down.

West Virginia: The Mountaineers have won three straight games for the first time under Brown, who is 25-26 in his fifth season. West Virginia also snapped a four-game losing streak to the Red Raiders.

UP NEXT

Texas Tech hosts Houston subsequent Saturday.

West Virginia travels to TCU next Saturday night.

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AP school soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

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